Americans reject crypto for retirement as NIRS poll finds 77% call it risky
WASHINGTON, Aug 27. Seventy-seven percent of U.S. adults call cryptocurrency in retirement plans risky, a National Institute on Retirement Security survey of 1,203 respondents shows, with 46% rating it very risky. The results arrive as the Trump administration has moved to open 401(k) plans to alternative assets, including crypto funds, placing regulators and savers on opposite sides.
Key takeaways
- A National Institute on Retirement Security survey of 1,203 respondents found 77% of U.S. adults consider cryptocurrency in retirement plans risky, with 46% calling it very risky.
- The findings come as the Trump administration has moved to open 401(k) plans to alternative assets including crypto, via an August 2025 executive order and the May 2025 scrapping of prior cautionary Labor Department guidance.
- Eighty percent of respondents said the U.S. faces a retirement crisis, up from 67% in 2020, and 61% fear they will not be financially secure after they stop working.
- Fifty-three percent oppose employers offering crypto at all, and 84% said Washington leaders do not understand their retirement struggles, while 76% view traditional pensions favorably.
- Nearly half of Americans have less than $100,000 saved for retirement and 18% have saved nothing.
WASHINGTON, Aug 27. Seventy-seven percent of U.S. adults call cryptocurrency in retirement plans risky, a National Institute on Retirement Security survey of 1,203 respondents shows, with 46% rating it very risky. The results arrive as the Trump administration has moved to open 401(k) plans to alternative assets, including crypto funds, placing regulators and savers on opposite sides.
Greenwald Research conducted the poll for the Washington-based nonprofit late last year. Eighty percent of respondents said the United States faces a retirement crisis, up from 67% in 2020. Sixty-one percent said they fear they will not be financially secure after they stop working.
Nearly half of Americans have less than $100,000 set aside for retirement, and 18% have saved nothing. Only 9% of respondents correctly identified that $100,000 generates roughly $4,000 in first-year retirement income under a standard withdrawal rule.
"Americans are telling us that retirement security is becoming harder to achieve as they struggle with the affordability of everyday life," Dan Doonan, NIRS executive director, said in the report. "Housing, healthcare, debt and other expenses are competing with the need to save for retirement."
Inflation worried 73% of respondents, and market swings troubled 62%. Seventy-six percent said they fear Social Security cuts if Congress does not act.
Regulatory reversal, resistant savers
Washington's posture has shifted. In 2022, the Labor Department told employers to use "extreme care" before adding cryptocurrency to 401(k) menus. That guidance was scrapped in May 2025. President Trump's August 2025 executive order directed the department to open 401(k)s to alternative assets, including crypto funds. Regulators then rescinded a 2021 statement discouraging those investments. A proposed rule followed in March. Critics raised fiduciary concerns within weeks of the original order.
Savers have not followed. Fifty-three percent oppose employers offering crypto at all, and 84% said Washington leaders do not understand their retirement struggles. Seventy-six percent view traditional pensions favorably.
Bitcoin ($BTC) traded near $78,092 at the time the results circulated. Employers now sit between two forces: regulators permit crypto on retirement menus, and three in four workers call it risky.